First Trip 300 miles: Las Vegas to Phoenix

[GMan]

I'm taking the plunge tomorrow for either a one day or two day trip. To date, my longest 1-way trip was 75 miles. Tomorrow, i start a 300 mile 1-way trip.

I drive a Touring, so not quite the range of my big brothers out there. ABRP doesn't even have a Touring car to use! So, I'm planning two charges asking the way, just for ease of mind.

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[Bobby]

I'm taking the plunge tomorrow for either a one day or two day trip. To date, my longest 1-way trip was 75 miles. Tomorrow, i start a 300 mile 1-way trip.

I drive a Touring, so not quite the range of my big brothers out there. ABRP doesn't even have a Touring car to use! So, I'm planning two charges asking the way, just for ease of mind.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Keep it at 70 or less and accelerate gently.

 

[Sandvinsd]

Set ABRP to a battery at about 75%. That should give you a Touring with a bit of margin.

As for the trips, the more you take the more you get comfortable with the range and how far you can travel with your driving habits. Have fun and enjoy the trip. This is such a great road trip car!

 

[GMan]

Update:
I took a 20% haircut on ABRP due to Touring version and estimated 2.8 m/kW.

Leg one of trip (LV to Needles, CA):
Drove 70 or less, most of the time. Hard to do on one lane state highway with cars itching to pass you.
Starting SOC 95% and arrival was 65% well above estimate (40%). Had an amazing 4.6 m/kW rate for this leg! I suspect elevating helped here but I'll take it.

Needles EA totally devoid of cars. I suspect it's there only for intercity travel as local cars didn't exactly strike me as being forward thinking. EA worked perfectly fine. I didn't think i needed to precondition. I was pulling 75kW, which was fine for me.
This leg built good confidence.

Leg Two (Needles to Quartzsite):
Departed 95% SOC arrived 65%
Drove 75 mph, averaged 3.5 m/kW happy with that for sure.
EA was a disaster. Line of cars as this is there last station before Phoenix. One unit broken, the others pushing 45kW max. Mine pulled 5 (not a typo). I had to quit and restart. It bounced between 20-45. Many frustrated drivers. On the plus side, i got to chat with a Ford F-150 owner. I hadn't seen one of those before.
I was happy to get out of Quartzsite.

More later

 

[cwang089]

Just a comment on charging for roadtrips. Normally for time efficiency the goal should be not to charge beyond like 80%. The charging curve slows down as the battery fills up. Beyond 90% you might as well plug into a level 2 as you probably are getting close to the same speed.

This is a little harder when you rely on EA and not knowing if the next charger works. But if this message got out there, then there would be more charging space as most people just need a 5 minute stop ideally for a 300 mile trip.

EA giving out free charging is really a detriment to non-Tesla fast charging. ID4s are clogging up all metro EA stations

 

[KenAir]

Looking at the map of EA chargers, one would think there are plenty of stations at good locations to make a road trip a no-brainer. The reality is the reliability of the EA network (and possibly others) is terrible. It's insane that it is common for more than half the chargers at a station to be out of service - and to remain that way for weeks at a time. Tesla has done an impressive job keeping their network reliable and ubiquitous. EA needs to do the same. I would love to see the major EV manufacturers buy into EA and provide a billion dollars to expand and more importantly improve the reliability of the charging infrastructure.

 

[DeaneG]

EA was a disaster. Line of cars as this is there last station before Phoenix. One unit broken, the others pushing 45kW max. Mine pulled 5 (not a typo). I had to quit and restart. It bounced between 20-45. Many frustrated drivers. On the plus side, i got to chat with a Ford F-150 owner. I hadn't seen one of those before.
I was happy to get out of Quartzsite.

EA Quartzsite is well known for being a disaster.

Klye Connor is currently attempting Los Angeles->Phoenix in his Dad's Air GT without charging, specifically avoiding Quartzsite.

 

[GMan]

EA Quartzsite is well known for being a disaster.

Klye Connor is currently attempting Los Angeles->Phoenix in his Dad's Air GT without charging, specifically avoiding Quartzsite.

RECOMMENDED

 

[GMan]

Just a comment on charging for roadtrips. Normally for time efficiency the goal should be not to charge beyond like 80%. The charging curve slows down as the battery fills up. Beyond 90% you might as well plug into a level 2 as you probably are getting close to the same speed.

This is a little harder when you rely on EA and not knowing if the next charger works. But if this message got out there, then there would be more charging space as most people just need a 5 minute stop ideally for a 300 mile trip.

EA giving out free charging is really a detriment to non-Tesla fast charging. ID4s are clogging up all metro EA stations

Agreed. I did this at Quartzsite as i didn't feel like sleeping there

 

[GMan]

Update:
I took a 20% haircut on ABRP due to Touring version and estimated 2.8 m/kW.

Leg one of trip (LV to Needles, CA):
Drove 70 or less, most of the time. Hard to do on one lane state highway with cars itching to pass you.
Starting SOC 95% and arrival was 65% well above estimate (40%). Had an amazing 4.6 m/kW rate for this leg! I suspect elevating helped here but I'll take it.

Needles EA totally devoid of cars. I suspect it's there only for intercity travel as local cars didn't exactly strike me as being forward thinking. EA worked perfectly fine. I didn't think i needed to precondition. I was pulling 75kW, which was fine for me.
This leg built good confidence.

Leg Two (Needles to Quartzsite):
Departed 95% SOC arrived 65%
Drove 75 mph, averaged 3.5 m/kW happy with that for sure.
EA was a disaster. Line of cars as this is there last station before Phoenix. One unit broken, the others pushing 45kW max. Mine pulled 5 (not a typo). I had to quit and restart. It bounced between 20-45. Many frustrated drivers. On the plus side, i got to chat with a Ford F-150 owner. I hadn't seen one of those before.
I was happy to get out of Quartzsite.

More later

Update:

Leg 3 Quartzsite to Tempe
Departed 85% arrived at destination at 75%
Drove 80-85 mostly as i wasn't concerned about battery.
3.8 m/kW
Great drive, putting aside the traffic due to I-10 being closed.
I used air conditioning, which was fine.

On my first two legs, i rarely used the AC. It was hot but more concerned about battery. Cracked both front windows

I'm getting XPEL and PPF so the trip back should be much better temp-wise.

Question... I didn't precondition before my recharges. I don't recall if i need to, if I've been driving over an hour and in 90 degree temps. What's the recommendation here?

 

[GMan]

EA Quartzsite is well known for being a disaster.

Klye Connor is currently attempting Los Angeles->Phoenix in his Dad's Air GT without charging, specifically avoiding Quartzsite.

Please give Kyle a heads-up that I-10 is closed at some point in Phoenix. I'd tag him but don't know his username.

 

[GMan]

Please give Kyle a heads-up that I-10 is closed at some point in Phoenix. I'd tag him but don't know his username.

@DeaneG please also let Kyle know that EA at Buckeye, AZ had 3 of 4 chargers not working, not just me, other drivers couldn't charge. They show as available but all give Authentication Error. The app doesn't help. One driver was on the phone with EA but gave up. The 350 was the only one that worked.

That is probably the stop he's looking to arrive at, bypassing Quartzsite.

 

[Steveinarizona]

@DeaneG please also let Kyle know that EA at Buckeye, AZ had 3 of 4 chargers not working, not just me, other drivers couldn't charge. They show as available but all give Authentication Error. The app doesn't help. One driver was on the phone with EA but gave up. The 350 was the only one that worked.

That is probably the stop he's looking to arrive at, bypassing Quartzsite.

If Buckeye doesn't work Electrify America website shows one in Glendale at the 101 and Arrowhead at the WalMart. Depending upon where he wants to go in Phoenix, he can continue on the 101 to Scottsdale or take the I-17 south exit toward downtown Phoenix.

 

[DeaneG]

Please give Kyle a heads-up that I-10 is closed at some point in Phoenix. I'd tag him but don't know his username.

Kyle is @itskyleconner, but it's more important to post on Plugshare and file a report on Electrify America's phone app so that others will know.

 

[Tesla2.0]

Currently Kyle is loving the efficiency

 

[hydbob]

If you set ACC to 70, you can drive Pasadena to Phoenix without stopping =)

 

[Volund]

Currently Kyle is loving the efficiency

View attachment 11703

Coming out of winter in Utah it's jarring for me to see efficiency this good. I miss seeing my 3.8+ and it feels like forever since I've seen it. Although I don't strive for efficiency unless I'm on a long drive, so there's that.

 

[joec]

Coming out of winter in Utah it's jarring for me to see efficiency this good. I miss seeing my 3.8+ and it feels like forever since I've seen it. Although I don't strive for efficiency unless I'm on a long drive, so there's that.

I have an appointment to swap out my snow tires for all-seasons this coming Friday. Cannot wait to see efficiency jump up. Not that I'm not happy with 3.1 - 3.2. But I know the car is capable of doing so much better.

 

[lsbuffs]

Update:

Leg 3 Quartzsite to Tempe
Departed 85% arrived at destination at 75%
Drove 80-85 mostly as i wasn't concerned about battery.
3.8 m/kW
Great drive, putting aside the traffic due to I-10 being closed.
I used air conditioning, which was fine.

On my first two legs, i rarely used the AC. It was hot but more concerned about battery. Cracked both front windows

I'm getting XPEL and PPF so the trip back should be much better temp-wise.

Question... I didn't precondition before my recharges. I don't recall if i need to, if I've been driving over an hour and in 90 degree temps. What's the recommendation here?

Only 10% used from Quartzite to Tempe? Wouldn't you have used about 40% of a Touring battery to cover the approximate 143 miles if the efficiency was 3.8 mi/kWh? Maybe I'm reading this wrong.

I had fun making my way to Sky Harbor this morning with I10 shut down. Can't wait for that project to be over.

 

[GMan]

Kyle is @itskyleconner, but it's more important to post on Plugshare and file a report on Electrify America's phone app so that others will know.

Yep, i did that